TQIP Program Participation Frequently Asked Questions

See Join TQIP for more information about TQIP eligibility and enrollment steps.

To provide for the ongoing stability of our programs and to support advancements in technology, analytics, and training for participants, we have established a long-term pricing structure for the TQIP Program. Please log in to QPort to view current pricing.

In budgeting for program participation, hospitals should factor in the cost of travel and hotel accommodations for the TQIP Annual Conference. Each participating hospital will receive two free registrations to the Annual Conference. Visit our TQIP Annual Conference webpage for more information.

Additionally, we encourage you to contact your registry vendor for more details about your specific software requirements and fees. Adult Level I & II TQIP and Pediatric TQIP centers are asked to add the Process Measure data elements to their registry.

All fully enrolled TQIP centers are exempt from the NTDB annual participation fee.

A hospital may start the process of enrolling in TQIP at any time. To streamline program participation and billing, TQIP has implemented quarterly enrollment windows. Enrollment deadlines and TQIP start dates will occur on July 1, October 1, January 1, and April 1 each year.

The table below displays risk-adjusted benchmark report eligibility, based on the timing of center enrollment. In order to receive a report, a center must meet data quality and quantity criteria.

View the Risk-Adjusted Benchmark Report Timeline

See the Resource Guide for applying to enroll in a Trauma Quality Program as a new site. 

After you complete enrollment in TQIP, your hospital submits data quarterly, at minimum. New TQIP centers are encouraged to submit the most recent 12 months of data to help ensure they are not excluded from their first report due to insufficient data. See the TQIP Participation Calendar for a detailed submissions timeline.

In January 2026, TQIP transitioned to a new data submission pathway that allows your facility to submit data in a timelier fashion, directly from your registry product. You will no longer need to manually create and upload your file to the TQP Data Center, though for calendar year 2026 we will still support this method. See the Direct Data Submission Transition page for more information. 

Level I & II TQIP and Pediatric TQIP centers are asked to collect and submit the Process Measure data elements when you join TQIP. These data elements can be found in the TQIP Measures for Process of Care section in the NTDS Data Dictionary.

We encourage you to notify your vendor that you will be joining TQIP and moving from annual data submissions to quarterly data submissions as a part of the program.

We also encourage you to work with your vendor to ensure that you are up to date with the current version of the NTDS.

Fully enrolled TQIP participants should choose "File Type: TQIP" when submitting data that contains Process Measures. The "File Type: TQIP without Process Measures" should be used for data that does NOT contain process measures.

A TQIP center will become eligible to receive their first risk-adjusted benchmark report depending on their enrollment date. The table below displays risk-adjusted benchmark report eligibility, based on the timing of center enrollment. In order to receive a report, a center must meet data quality and quantity criteria.

View the Risk-Adjusted Benchmark Report Timeline

The main difference between the annual NTDB Benchmark Report and the TQIP Benchmark Report, is that the NTDB Benchmark Report is purely descriptive, providing only a simplistic baseline without accounting for the case variation of trauma centers, while the TQIP Benchmark Report applies complex statistical models to account for those hospital-to-hospital differences.

More specifically, TQIP uses a mixed-models approach to risk adjustment, which accounts for case-mix differences in demographic, medical history, and injury characteristics to provide more actionable and accurate like-to-like comparisons across a variety of outcomes. Additionally, as TQIP risk-adjusted reporting is based on a subset of more severely injured patients, we focus our feedback on those at the greatest risk for an adverse outcome and those with the greatest opportunity to benefit from improved interventions.

Education is a key component of the program. Educational opportunities available to TQIP centers include the following:

• TQIP Online Education, which covers updates to the NTDS Data Dictionary, understanding and using data quality information, and the roles of the TQIP team at your hospital
• Monthly quizzes
• Sessions on a variety of topics at the TQIP Annual Conference
• Access to the TQIP Education Portal
• Participation in the TQIP Google Group

Once fully enrolled in TQIP, the TQIP team members in QPort will receive access to the TQIP Education Portal. The Primary Contact can manage their site contacts any time through QPort in the Site Contacts and Data Platform Contacts sections.

While we strongly encourage hospitals to attend the conference, we realize that not all centers can participate each year. Included in your TQIP participation fee are two complimentary registrations to the TQIP Annual Conference that we hope will encourage you to attend. Additional staff are welcome to attend but must pay the meeting registration fee. Please see our TQIP Annual Conference webpage for more details.